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TL: ALT
Chapter 162 – Jennifer’s Scout Caravan Day 5, Night
I checked on the damage caused by pirates at the Adventurers’ Guild. An employee told me about a few promising locations that could be pirate hideouts.
I checked out a few coves and found a few pirates.
I observed them from a distance and saw that they were seriously engaged in pirate activities, such as sharpening knives and untangling ropes. A large man with a black beard appeared to be the captain, barking orders.
Additionally, I saw a creature resembling a siren in the sea, along with a smaller creature attending to it.
The siren’s song likely causes confusion, and they are probably planning to attack merchant ships. I also spotted a wooden box containing what appeared to be smoke bombs.
Since their weapons seem to lack lethality, they may be prioritizing suppression.
After eating a hearty lunch of fish, I prepared on the cliff above the cove. With a mace and rope in hand, I aimed for the captain and jumped onto the pirate ship.
“Don’t move. I just want to borrow your boat.”
I twisted the captain’s arm and tied his hands together.
“Ouch!”
“It doesn’t hurt. It’s just your imagination.”
“It hurts like hell! Who are you!?”
“I am a messenger from the demonic land. I need to conduct an investigation, so please lend me a small boat.”
“An investigation? Go ask the Adventurers’ Guild!”
“They won’t let me sail into demonic waters.”
“Are you stupid?”
“I’m fine with that. A small boat will do. Tell your crew to get it ready.”
“All right. But don’t expect too much. I’m not worth much.”
The captain went to the bow and took a deep breath so that everyone in the cove could hear him.
“This young lady wants to go to the demonic waters. Prepare a small boat for her.”
“””…”””
The ship’s crew, who had been working in the cove, stopped and looked up at the captain.
“See? No one is going to prepare it. Do you understand? I may be the captain, but my crew has free will. They won’t do work they don’t want to do.”
“Even if I kill you?”
“They’ll just choose a new captain.”
The laws of pirates are harsh.
“I guess I have no choice.”
Bam!
I swung the mace down onto the floorboards.
A hole opened up.
“What have you done?”
The captain was in a panic.
“Prepare a small boat. If you don’t move, I’ll make a hole in the floor every ten seconds.”
I declared loudly. However, the crew members in the cove did not move.
Bam…! Bam…! Bam…!
Three holes appeared in the deck. Just as the captain cried out, “Stop!” the young monster tamer finally spoke up.
“What’s in it for us?”
“What’s in it for you? Well, I have a little money. About ten silver coins.”
“Say that sooner!”
Suddenly, all the crew members started moving at once and prepared a small boat.
When they were ready, they held out their hands. After I gave each of them a silver coin, the pirates seemed to have achieved their goal. It seemed that pirates would move if you paid them.
“I’ll give you a little more money, so I’d like to ask one of you to steer the boat…”
“How much?”
“Five silver coins.”
“All right, Celcia and I will go.”
Celcia seemed to be a siren, waving her hands from the sea.
“Please take care of me.”
The sky had turned completely crimson, and I worried that we wouldn’t make it to the location where the ghost ship had been sighted.
“Ah, it’s okay. I have a navigator’s license.”
The young monster tamer was preparing a compass and a magic stone lamp.
When I pointed to the map and said, “Around here,” he made a puzzled face.
“Is it dangerous?”
“If monsters appear, we’ll turn back. Is that okay?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
I climbed into the small boat, and Celcia pulled us out to sea.
Then, we set sail and headed for the sighting point to the east.
There was no wind, so we made little progress. Celcia sat at the stern, looking tired. There would be an extra charge to go any further.
I tried rowing with the oars, and we made better progress than I expected. It didn’t take long to reach the spot where the ghost ship was believed to have been.
“Can we wait a little longer?”
“Sure, I brought dinner, so we can stay until morning.”
I strained my eyes to look at the horizon, but I didn’t see anything. There wasn’t even a sign of fish.
Ignoring the young man and Celcia as they ate their meal, I stared intently at the eastern sea. I could see something that looked like rocks in the distance, but I couldn’t tell if they were land or the back of a monster.
As the sun set on the western horizon, a cool breeze brushed against my cheeks.
As I looked in my bag for something to wear, white mist suddenly began to appear.
“Let’s go back! If we stay here, we’ll be stranded before the ghost ship appears.”
Celcia nodded in agreement with the young man.
“Okay. Huh? Wait a minute!”
For a moment, I saw the light of a magic stone lamp in the fog. Looking more closely, I saw the shadow of a large, black ship slowly approaching.
“It’s a ghost ship!”
The young man’s voice echoed.
I was so happy to have found the ghost ship on my first day of searching that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you laughing at?”
The young man’s words brought me back to reality.
“Excuse me. I have work to do, so please wait a moment.”
“Huh?”
Without waiting for a reply, I deployed the slime wall. Using its momentum, I jumped toward the ghost ship.
From above, the ship looked dilapidated, with holes in the sails and scorch marks on the hull. There were skeleton swordsmen and ghost-like monsters on board. If Makyo-san were here, he might faint.
But I am a priestess, after all. I can’t be scared of mere ghosts.
I jumped onto the mast and crushed the head of the skeleton swordsman on watch with my mace.
Clang!
The sound of a skull flying through the air finally alerted the monsters on deck to my presence. Even if they had noticed me, what I had to do remained the same.
I applied a healing potion to my mace and jumped down to the deck.
Before the skeleton swordsmen could raise their weapons at the sudden appearance of a living being, I shattered their arm bones.
Snap! Snap! Clang!
Ghost-type monsters have no flesh and are fragile. Even with a shield, I could blow them away.
“Enemy attack!”
A voice came from the rear of the ship.
If monsters could speak, my job would be much easier.
Magic fireballs and arrows flew toward me, but I created a magical barrier around myself and deflected them easily. I expanded the range of the barrier and flung the skeleton swordsmen and ghosts off the deck and into the sea.
I subdued a zombie-like monster called Draugr that was holding the rudder and placed a bottle of healing potion on its head.
“If you move, I’ll break the potion and send you to the afterlife. Answer my questions.”
“…”
“Earlier, I heard you say ‘enemy attack.’ You can talk, can’t you?”
“Ah…”
“I heard that if we head east from here, there’s a rocky reef. Is that true?”
“It’s a lie.”
The Draugr’s answer was brief. Maybe he hadn’t had anyone to talk to while he was out at sea.
“What’s the truth?”
“It’s a monster. It looks like a rocky reef or an island.”
Could it be the giant magical beast from the demonic land?
“Have you gone further?”
“No.”
“Do you know what lies at the eastern edge?”
“…”
“It’s where the country of Yggdrasil once stood. I came from there.”
“What!?”
“It’s called the demonic land now, though.”
“If that’s the case, then this sea is the demonic land.”
“Then this sea also belongs to my lord.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! No one rules this sea!”
Suddenly, as the Draugr shouted, skeleton swordsmen crawled out of the sea, splashing seawater all over the deck. They seemed to be resistant to seawater.
“Hey, little girl! We’re the Undead Pirates. No matter where you go, we will attack you again and again until you die!”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“…What?”
“When I return to the demonic land, please establish a trade route from the South End to it. From now on, this ship will be a merchant ship for the demonic land.”
“Wait a minute! East of here are the demonic waters. Ancient monsters with towers on their backs fight there, underwater volcanoes erupt, and gases that rot your lungs fill the air.”
“That’s perfect for you guys since you’re already dead.”
“No, that’s not…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be waiting for you in the demonic land to the east. Come attack me. Oh, a reward? What would you like? I don’t have any gold or silver, but…”
I can’t think of anything a dead pirate would want.
“Do you have any dragon bones?”
“What about golems?”
“A book of time magic?”
The skeleton swordsmen and the undead on the deck asked.
“We haven’t found any dragons yet, but you can take as many bones as you want from Rock Crocodiles, Fire-Breathing Lizards, and Maeashitsukawazu. We also have a few golem cubes. We found a time magic circle, though. Is that okay as a reward?”
“We are pirates. We need to discuss this.”
I removed the healing potion from the Draugr’s head.
“As you heard! Is there anyone who wants to return to our homeland, Yggdrasil?”
The Draugr called out to the dead sailors on the deck.
“””…”””
There was no response.
“Then, is there anyone who wants the treasure of Yggdrasil?”
“””Yeah!”””
The crew stamped their feet and shouted.
“Whether there’s a giant monster ahead, the ship breaks apart, or our bodies rot away, as long as the treasure is there, we’ll grab it with our own hands!”
“””Yeah!”””
The crew’s voices echoed across the sea. But if the ship breaks apart, that’s a problem.
“It’s settled. Count on me, messenger from the demonic land.”
“Please do. If you need anything in South End, talk to the young monster tamer in the small boat. If you give him some silver coins, he should do whatever you want.”
I pointed to the young man watching from the small boat.
“Okay, got it.”
“Then let’s meet in the east.”
I deployed a slime wall and jumped onto the small boat.
“Whoa! You’re back!”
The young monster tamer and Celcia were clinging to the ship’s hull, looking surprised.
“Thank you for waiting. We’re done talking. Let’s go back.”
“What were you doing on the ghost ship?”
“Just a little recruitment. The ghost ship’s crew might talk to you, but please treat them kindly.”
“Why? I don’t want to!”
“It’s okay. You’ll get paid.”
“Eeeeeh…”
“Well, they’re bad people, but they’re dead, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“No, they’re dead, so they’re scary.”
“I see. I’ll give you some healing potions. If they do anything bad, use the potion, and they’ll go to heaven. That’s for sure.”
“You can’t just say ‘for sure’!”
“Probably?”
“Probably…?”
I half-heartedly asked the young man to take care of the ghost ship, then returned to South End.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Giorgio. And you?”
“Jennifer Volkov. Nice to meet you.”
“I’ll remember that. It’s a name I don’t want to hear again anytime soon.”
I parted ways with Giorgio and Celcia at the pirate cove.
If our paths cross again, there may come a day when I welcome them to the demonic land.
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